SDSU tries to solve road woes

Colorado State forward Pierce Hornung, left, battles for control of a loose ball with San Diego State guard Jamaal Franklin in the second half of Colorado State's 66-60 victory in an NCAA college basketball game in Fort Collins, Colo., Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
— AP

Colorado State forward Pierce Hornung, left, battles for control of a loose ball with San Diego State guard Jamaal Franklin in the second half of Colorado State's 66-60 victory in an NCAA college basketball game in Fort Collins, Colo., Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
/ AP

With two games left in the regular season, we can establish this about the San Diego State basketball team: It struggles on the road in the Mountain West.

We also can establish this: Everyone else does, too.

The trick becomes deciphering how much of the Aztecs’ sudden road woes is them and how much is a conference ranked No. 1 nationally in RPI. Coach Steve Fisher gave his players Thursday off after flying home from Albuquerque on Thursday morning, but he had his staff return to campus to sift through the rubble of their latest road implosion.

The Aztecs (20-8, 8-6) have now lost four straight road games after trailing No. 14 New Mexico by 15 points in the second half Wednesday and ultimately succumbing 70-60. They are 2-5 on the road in the Mountain West and assured of their first losing road record in conference play in five years, no matter what happens in the regular-season finale at Boise State.

Three of the road losses were one-possession games inside a minute to go: 70-67 at Air Force, 66-60 at Colorado State, 72-70 at UNLV. Two were not: 58-45 at Wyoming and Wednesday at New Mexico.

“Everything that goes into a road trip – from the travel to the hotel to the most significant thing, the crowd and the opposing team in their building – makes it harder,” Fisher said Thursday. “What we need to do on the road is put ourselves in a position to win, and we weren’t last night.

“We had three games that we lost that we could have won. But road wins are few and far between in this league.”

The cold, hard numbers: The top six in Mountain West are a combined 82-7 at home this season, including 36-4 in conference play. And only New Mexico, at 4-2, currently has a winning road record; the other eight teams do not.

It’s not just the Mountain West. Half of the Associated Press Top 12 lost on the road this week, five to unranked opponents.

Another issue, it appears, is altitude despite success in recent years. The Aztecs are 0-4 this season above 5,000 feet, losing at Wyoming (7,222), Air Force (7,081), Colorado State (5,025) and New Mexico (5,108).

Their other four losses were on a windy aircraft carrier to Syracuse, on a spectacular last-second block by Arizona’s Nick Johnson in Hawaii, and a pair of games to UNLV that were both one-possession games inside a minute to go.

But the Aztecs aren’t innocent victims of some cruel road hex. They play at an identical tempo – an average of 66 possessions – home or away in conference games, just aren’t equally efficient with them.

They shoot five fewer free throws per game on the road, while their opponents shoot five more than at Viejas Arena. Their conference field-goal shooting percentage is .476 at home and .411 on the road, which translates to four fewer made baskets per game.

The most striking difference is junior Jamaal Franklin when he ventures beyond the 3-point arc. He is making 42.3 percent of his 3s at Viejas Arena in conference games … and just 15.8 percent (6 of 39) on the road.